The White House’s exploration of a government-backed digital dollar is raising an implicit question that has received little attention: What role does Congress have in the decision?
Federal Reserve officials, including Chairman Jerome Powell, have said the central bank wouldn’t issue a digital dollar without support from Congress, but that leaves open at least the possibility that the Fed could move forward with buy-in that falls short of legislation. And that, in turn, raises a new question: What would buy-in have to look like to satisfy the Fed?
“The definition of support is the piece that remains murky,” said Jennifer Lassiter, executive director of The Digital Dollar Project. “We know they’re looking to the administration and to Capitol Hill for some type of concurrence or guidance to move forward, but we don’t know what shape that takes.”
